Auto-record and silence detection

[hyper-charlie]

Auto-record with opt-out

Users have to manually start recording every meeting. Invert the workflow — auto-record when a meeting starts, and show an opt-out notification so users can skip recording for specific calls. Reduces friction for users who want most meetings recorded.

Silence detection

Users forget to stop listening after a meeting ends, wasting resources and capturing dead air. Detect extended silence (e.g. 5 minutes) and send a notification asking if they want to stop, or auto-stop with a grace period.

Merged from

• Send notifications after 5-min of silence #1166 — Send notifications after 5-min of silence

[devin-ai-integration]

Codebase Context for Auto-Record with Opt-Out

I explored the codebase to identify the relevant components and data flow for this feature request. Here's what I found:

Current Recording Flow (Opt-In)

The current workflow requires the user to manually click "Start listening" (or have microphone detection trigger a notification that the user must confirm). Recording is controlled by the record_enabled field in SessionParams, which is set from the save_recordings config value at session start time.

Key flow:

1. User clicks "Start listening" → useStartListening hook is called
2. useStartListening reads the save_recordings config value and passes it as record_enabled in SessionParams → apps/desktop/src/hooks/useStartListening.ts:24, L129-L139
3. SessionParams.record_enabled flows into spawn_session_supervisor() → plugins/listener/src/actors/session.rs:128
4. If record_enabled is true, a RecorderActor is spawned that writes audio to WAV files → plugins/listener/src/actors/session.rs:128-152
5. If false, the RecorderActor is simply not spawned — transcription still works, just no audio file is saved.

Meeting Detection (Existing Auto-Start Infrastructure)

The app already has microphone detection that can detect when a meeting starts — this is the closest existing mechanism to "auto-record":

• Detect plugin (plugins/detect/src/handler.rs): Monitors microphone usage by other apps (Zoom, Meet, Teams, etc.), filters out ignored apps, and emits DetectEvent::MicStarted / MicStopped events.
• Listener context (apps/desktop/src/contexts/listener.tsx:52-124): Handles detect events. On micStarted, if notification_detect config is enabled and the window is not focused, it shows a notification via notificationCommands.showNotification() with an 8-second timeout. On micStopped, it automatically calls stop().
• Event notifications (apps/desktop/src/services/event-notification/index.ts): Shows a notification 5 minutes before calendar events with a "Start listening" action label.

Currently, the mic-detection notification informs the user but the user must confirm to start listening. The notification type supports notification_confirm / notification_accept / notification_dismiss / notification_timeout events (plugins/notification/js/bindings.gen.ts:70-74).

Settings & Config

• save_recordings (apps/desktop/src/config/registry.ts:123-126): Defaults to true. Controls whether the RecorderActor is spawned. Exposed in Settings → App as "Save recordings".
• notification_detect (apps/desktop/src/config/registry.ts:49-52): Defaults to true. Controls whether mic detection notifications are shown. Exposed in Settings → App as "Start/Stop listening to meetings automatically".
• notification_event: Controls pre-meeting calendar notifications.
• Tray menu (plugins/tray/src/menu_items/tray_start.rs): "Start a new recording" creates a new session tab with auto_start: Some(true).

Relevant Files Summary

Area	File	Purpose
Recording control	plugins/listener/src/actors/session.rs	SessionParams.record_enabled gates RecorderActor spawn
Recording actor	plugins/listener/src/actors/recorder.rs	WAV file writer actor
Session lifecycle	plugins/listener/src/actors/root.rs	Start/stop session management
Start listening hook	apps/desktop/src/hooks/useStartListening.ts	Reads save_recordings config, initiates session
Listener store	apps/desktop/src/store/zustand/listener/general.ts	Zustand store with start() / stop() actions
Mic detection handler	apps/desktop/src/contexts/listener.tsx	Handles detect events, shows notification
Detect plugin	plugins/detect/src/handler.rs	macOS mic usage monitoring
Event notification	apps/desktop/src/services/event-notification/index.ts	Calendar-based pre-meeting notifications
Notification plugin	plugins/notification/js/bindings.gen.ts	Native notification with confirm/accept/dismiss/timeout
Config registry	apps/desktop/src/config/registry.ts	save_recordings, notification_detect defaults
Settings UI	apps/desktop/src/components/settings/general/index.tsx	Settings form for app preferences
App settings UI	apps/desktop/src/components/settings/general/app-settings.tsx	Toggle switches for settings
Listen button (floating)	apps/desktop/src/components/main/body/sessions/floating/listen.tsx	Floating "Start listening" button

Considerations for Implementation

1. New config key needed: Something like auto_record_mode ("opt_in" | "opt_out") or a boolean auto_record in the config registry and settings store. The current notification_detect already handles detecting meetings — the missing piece is automatically starting a session when a meeting is detected, rather than just showing a notification.

2. Auto-start on detection: The useHandleDetectEvents function in contexts/listener.tsx currently shows a notification on micStarted. For opt-out mode, it would need to automatically call start() (creating a session and beginning transcription/recording) and then show an opt-out notification giving the user a window to cancel.

3. Notification flow inversion: The existing NotificationEvent types already support notification_dismiss — for opt-out, the flow would be: auto-start session → show "Recording started, click to stop" notification → if user clicks dismiss/stop, call stop(). The notification_timeout event (when notification auto-closes) would mean the user accepted recording by inaction.

4. Session creation: Auto-starting requires creating a new session automatically. The tray's "Start a new recording" (tray_start.rs) already does something similar — it opens a new session tab with auto_start: true. This pattern could be reused.

5. Per-call opt-out: The request specifically asks for per-call opt-out. This means the global setting would be "auto-record by default" but each notification would allow disabling recording for that specific session. This could be done by starting the session normally and stopping it if the user opts out within the notification window.